A safety vest, or body cover, is typically a light weight garment that is highly visible and intended to be worn to insure the wearer is visible to a driver of a vehicle. Safety vests are worn by workers involved in road construction and by persons exercising on roads used by vehicles. At times when ambient illumination is low, e.g. early mornings, late afternoons, evenings and in situations when visibility is minimal, e.g. during a fog, safety vests with lights are sometimes used. Examples of known safety vests with lights are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,488, U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,106, and U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006/0034064.
While the above listed inventions provide safety vests with lighting apparatus, a problem persists in that the vests are not used regularly by persons exercising on roads used by vehicles. This lapse results in many unnecessary accidents because the exerciser is often not seen by the vehicle driver in time to avoid injury. Construction workers involved in road projects wear safety vests more regularly, possibly because of insurance requirements or governmental regulations. It remains a problem to motivate exercisers to wear a safety vest, especially a lighted safety vest during times of low ambient light.